The Safety of Speed

The popular rhetoric would have you believe that slow and cautious is the safest way to drive. I disagree. Say you want to change lanes on the freeway. Is it safer to do it slowly, slowing down, looking over your shoulder to see who might be coming? You have you eyes off the road in front of you, you're causing everyone around you to react to you slowing down, cars are stacking up behind you and forced to make erratic and evasive lane changes themselves (maybe without really looking). It's absolutely HORRIBLE!

Here is the better way. You look ahead of you, find a hole, and go fill it. You never take your eyes off the road and no one behind you has to take any action or care to what you are doing. You might have to exceed the speed limit to go fill the hole, but it is FAR SAFER to do it this way.

As a matter of fact, going a little bit faster than most of the traffic is the safest way. Your focus is now mostly directed to what is in front of you. You only need to glance back in the mirror occasionally to see if someone might be coming up even faster. If they are, GET OUT OF THE WAY, it's the LAW!!! Besides, a little faster than everyone is where the 85th percentile is and that is widely acknowledged by traffic engineers as the safest posted speed limit. Should I sacrifice my personal safety, and the safety of others, for the sake of compliance to an artificially low speed limit? I think not!

Basically, when it comes to overall safety for yourself and all the other vehicles around you, the throttle is almost always safer than the brake.

See you in the fast lane!